The present invention relates generally to a bracket to attach a corner of a planar surface to a vertical member that will support the planar surface. More particularly, the present invention is a corner bracket that can be used to attach a planar surface to a vertical member which will act as a supporting member that can support the planar surface.
Conventional corner bracket generally comprises of two metallic components. The first component has a large hole, generally with a circular profile, through its body to allow insertion of the vertical member that will be supporting the planar surface. A small portion of the wall of the first component that defines the large hole has a cut-out that exposes the surface of the vertical member when it is inserted into the large hole.
The second component has a profile that will match the first component such that when they are attached together with two bolts they form a functional unit that will hold the planar surface to the vertical member. The second component has two holes angled at forty-five degrees to the planar surface. Two matching bolts are inserted through the two holes into two threaded holes in the first component oriented to match the two holes in the second component thereby, by tightening the two bolts in the threaded holes, the two components will be pulled toward each other such that a planar surface of varying thickness may be sandwiched and held between the two components. Another larger bolt is threaded through another larger hole in the second component between the two bolts such that as the larger bolt is threaded further into the second component, it will protrude into the cut-out in the first component and secure the corner bracket to the vertical member supporting the planar member.
This conventional design has several inherent limitations and has limited applications. First, the larger bolt that is used to secure the corner bracket to the vertical member tends to separate the two components as the larger bolt is tightened in an attempt to securely lock onto the vertical member. The larger bolt also directly opposes the two bolts that are used to hold the two components together. Furthermore, as the two components are forced apart by the larger bolt, the corner bracket will loosen its grip on the planar surface. Therefore, the larger bolt and the two bolts are always resisting each other and a compromise between the grip on the planar surface and the grip on the vertical member must be reached. This conventional design can only be used on a very limited range of thin and relatively light weight planar surfaces.
The present invention is a corner bracket comprising of two matching components held together by two bolts wherein as the two bolts are tightened, the two matching components will be urged toward each other thereby securely gripping a planar surface that is inserted between them. Another bolt is inserted through an opening in the second component through a threaded hole in the first component and protrudes into a hole in the first component where the vertical supporting member is inserted. The bolt will securely lock the corner bracket with the planar surface to the vertical supporting member. The advantage of the present invention is that the force of the grip on the planar surface can be adjusted independently of the force of the grip on the vertical supporting member. Another advantage of the present invention is that the corner bracket can be used to secure a variety of planar surfaces with a relative large range of thickness.